The Reckless Decade : America in the 1890s

Rating:
Summary: Very readable history
Review: "The Reckless Decade" is a very readable synthesis of biography, social history, intellectual history, and just good old-fashioned storytelling art. Brands's writing style is electric, his wit sharp, and his discretion as to when to use well-chosen quotations and when to render his own pithy judgments seldom erring.

A thoroughly enjoyable period history of a time very much like our own.

Rating:
Summary: A Wealth of Knowledge
Review:

After the Civil War and Reconstruction, America was witnessing revolutions in every field. Not only in industry were there innovations, but in politics, economy, and society as well. These changes, including the emergence of multi-millionaires like Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Morgan, labor unions, and the fight for free silver, continued well into the final decade of the 19th century. The 1890's was a time of unrest in America with corrupt politicians, an agrarian downturn, and other problems. H.W. Brands tries to get a hold of this turbulent age in The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890's.

Brands' objective in this work is to illustrate the rich history of the "reckless decade," while at the same time drawing parallels to the modern day. His introduction serves as a reminder of this goal. In it, he compares the end of the 19th century to the end of the 20th century. Both periods felt the "brink of a new era... most pronounced in America's cities." The cities in both eras helped reshape the economy. Brands notes that the politics of both decades were entrenched in fear and weariness. Those of the 1890's feared the change of the lives of the farmers with industrialization, while those of the 1990's feared a "ubiquitous, iniquitous liberalism." These comparisons are offered in the introduction, but not given directly in the book.

Brands covers a startlingly broad selection of events in such a narrow timeframe of history. The competition between the business juggernauts, Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Morgan is presented in almost a narrative form, making a mundane matter of economics interesting. Brands spends a chapter discusses the "other half" of society, in distinct contrast with the aforementioned business magnates. He alludes to the work of journalist, Jacob Riis, in how immigrants managed to get by in the slums of New York. Much of the chapter is taken directly from Riis' gloomy portrayal of the ramshackle apartments. Brands discusses in depth the Spanish-American War, Jim Crow laws and segregation, and the national frenzy over gold and silver. One of the more interesting parts of the book was a retelling of the Homestead Strike of 1892. Brands depicts the event as having "the atmosphere a circus. (The better educated of the Pinkertons might have thought of a Roman circus with themselves as Christians and the strikers as the lions.)" The scope of the book misses very little: educational reform may be the only theme untouched in The Reckless Decade.

The book is written in a very approachable style. Brands is, at times, captivating in his narration of events. Unfortunately, the reading is also slow at some points. The author should be applauded, however, for his extensive research, as the material is exhaustive. The Reckless Decade encapsulates ten years of history in a mere 350 pages.

Rating:
Summary: A Perfect Ten
Review: H.W. Brands is one of our best popular historians, and he doesn't disappoint with this book about America in the 1890's. He starts the book with two tales that demonstrate the closing of the frontier- the final major land rush in the Oklahoma Territory, which occurred in 1893; and the fighting at Wounded Knee, in the Dakota Territory, in December 1890, which resulted in the deaths of Sitting Bull and many women and children (noncombatants) at the hands of U.S. Army cavalry troops. The Sioux Indians were left demoralized by this event. Professor Brands grabs our attention with the first sentence of the book: "Fred Sutton had watched the earlier rushes into Oklahoma; he had seen friends no smarter, tougher, or more discerning than himself grab homesteads; and when word came that the government in Washington was going to open up the Cherokee Strip to settlement, he determined that this time he'd get a piece of the action." Later on in the chapter, the author switches from the concrete to the philosophical, telling us what thinkers such as Frederick Jackson Turner and Henry and Brooks Adams had to say about the significance of the closing of the frontier. This balance, in addition to the gripping narrative style, is what makes Professor Brands such a good writer. The book is just plain fun to read, but it is also intellectually challenging. Later chapters deal with the growth and centralization of big business (Carnegie and Rockefeller); the importance of the financier (J.P. Morgan); the urban, immigrant poor and the role of the political machines (Tammany Hall); economic downturn and the plight of farmers; racial discrimination and the different philosophies of Black American leaders on how to improve the lives of Black Americans (Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois); the political battle over the Gold Standard vs. bimetallism (the Populist party, William Jennings Bryan); and the exercise of American power abroad (the Spanish-American War and Theodore Roosevelt). Professor Brands wrote this book in the mid-1990's and he points out some parallels between the two decades- the most obvious being the tendency of people to begin looking outside the political mainstream during periods of great economic uncertainty. During the 1890's people felt under stress from industrialization, economic centralization and also from the severe depression the country was going through. Americans in the 1990's felt the heat of global competition and the uncertainties involved in the ongoing transition from a manufacturing to a more service based economy. The author gently points out some similarities. He wisely doesn't take the analogy too far. As you can see, the book is brimming over with topics and ideas, but it is always a joy to read- not least because of the many fascinating characters who are portrayed. In the section on the rise of big business, Professor Brands entertains us with the story of the competition between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse. Westinghouse originally made his fortune by inventing the railway air brake. When he decided to branch out into electricity, Edison wasn't amused. He muttered to a colleague, "Tell Westinghouse to stick to air brakes." Edison was working on commercializing direct current, while Westinghouse favored alternating current (which uses higher voltages). To try to influence public opinion, Edison had his technicians wire up stray cats and dogs to the higher voltages and switched on the current. Edison put out pamphlets implying that alternating current would do the same thing to people that it did to the unfortunate animals. And when Westinghouse got the contract to provide the electricity for New York State's "electric chairs," Edison remarked that prisoners could now either be hanged or they could be "Westinghoused." So, apparently "The Wizard Of Menlo Park" didn't spend all of his time inventing. He had a few moments left over to engage in some below-the-belt boxing!